Becoming a Certified Personal Trainer: Course Requirements Explained

Fitness industry has seen a huge revolution in the past decade with more and more people now understanding the importance of getting evidence-based knowledge and moving ahead from the anecdotal evidence and as a result people are now moving towards becoming a certified coach. Becoming a certified trainer involves a structured educational path that equips you with the knowledge and skills to guide others towards their fitness goals safely and effectively.

A personal training course is very crucial in the field of fitness and nutrition because it helps you gain evidence-based knowledge and tools to help your clients improve their health markers, improve their fitness by setting up individualized programs for your clients.

Before diving up into the course requirements, it is important to know about the common personal trainer certifications that you can choose.

1. ACE (AMERICAN COUCIL OF EXERCISE)
2. NSCA (NATIONAL STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING ASSOCIATION)
3. ISSA (INTERENATIONAL SPORTS SCIENCES ASSOCIATION)
4. ACSM (AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SPORTS MEDICINE)

These are some of the best certifications out there that provide evidence-based education to their students and helps them gain expertise in the field of exercise and nutrition. Each of this certification has its own curriculum, examination process, and continuing education requirements. However, they all adhere to industry standards and guidelines that are set by accrediting agencies such as the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA).

Here are the course requirements:

1. If you want to appear for an international fitness certification, one of the most essential requirements would be to have the ability to read and understand basic English. You do not have to be fluent in English speaking but you should be able to read and understand English.
2. You must be a high school pass with minimum age of 18 years at the time of exam.

That is, it.That is all you need to start the certification. But what about appearing the examination?

To appear for your final examination, you will be learning a large array of topics that you will have to master to clear the exam.

1. ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY: A personal training course will teach you about anatomy and physiology of human body. You will learn how the body works and how these principles can be applied to exercise science and nutrition.
2. BIOMECHANICS: A certified personal trainer course teaches about biomechanics as this is important for the coaches to learn about the physics behind exercise. From the exam perspective, it is important to know about the biomechanics and its practical applications in real life scenarios.
3. NUTRITION: It is expected from a personal trainer to have fare knowledge about nutrition and supplementation to bust the myths prevailing in this area. A trainer must have an ability to guide people with their nutrition requirements and help them adopt healthy eating habits.
4. CLIENT ASSESSMENTS AND INTERVIEWING:  In order to ace the final examination, you need to understand client assessments and how the interviewing process works. You should have a good understanding of the fitness assessment and how these assessments are individualized as per the clients.Developing skills in assessing clients’ fitness levels, setting realistic goals, and creating individualized workout plans tailored to their needs and abilitiesis one of the most essential parts of being a coach.
5. PERIODIZATION: If you are appearing for the CPT exam, then exercise periodization: exercise selection, planning- volume, intensity, frequency, exercise progression is super important. A certified personal trainer course will lay a huge emphasis on training periodization and if you want to clear the CPT exam, it is very important to understand these fundamentals.
6. COMMUNICATION AND MOTIVATION: Learning effective communication techniques, motivational strategies, and coaching skills to inspire and support clients throughout their fitness journey is essential from both- the coaching perspective and the exam perspective.

These are some of the things you will need to master to pass the certified personal trainer certification.

Breaking a misconception here, for starting a personal training course, you need not to have a background in science. All you must have an ability and keen interest to read from the study material.

Even If you cannot read English, you still can get a certification in fitness, as there are many Indian certifications that offers exams Hindi language. The best personal trainer certification in India is not the one that is most popular on social media, but it is the one that meets industry standards.